What's the Use a Book without Picures or Conversations?

The November session focus was on e-books and online reading devices. As publishers scramble to keep people reading/buying books, bringing all sorts of new devices and formats to the market place, alternatives to the traditional book are catching on in a big way. Carol Daul-Elhindi demonstrated the newest item on library book shelves--the PlayAway, an audio book the user can listen to without needing a CD player or a computer. Marty Judd described his experiences with Kindle, Amazon's wildly popular e-reader, and Sarah Bearbower treated the group to a memorable reading of a Stephen King novel on her iPod. The bookstore's Donna White was up next with a discussion of e-text books. As students struggle to pay for conventional textbooks, universities across the country are experimenting with delivery methods for cheaper online textbooks. Barnes and Noble is marketing their reader--the Nook, which Donna will stock in the bookstore. Some university bookstores are working with publishers to provide PODs, print on demand machines that enable students to print out copies of an online textbooks at substantial savings.

Missed the session? View it now on Tegrity

As these new reading technologies proliferate many question arise. Will they actually enhance learning or or will they instead discourage the deep reading skills necessary for academic success? What does the research tell us? Will these devices work for scholars who like to annotate, underline, and generally personalize their reading materials? What will the new business model for distribution of e-textbooks look like? Will faculty and students have more choices or fewer? Use the articles listed below to begin an engagement with the issues:

6 Lessons One Campus Learned about e-textbooks. Jeffrey Young (Chronicle of Higher Education 6/12/09 vol. 55 issue 39, EBSCO Professional Collection)

Amazon's Kindle is Off to College. Douglas MacMillan (Business Week Online 5/5/09 EBSCO Academic Search Premier)

Kindle for the Academic. Alex Golub (Inside Higher Education Nov 3, 2009)

Reading Behavior in the Digital Environment. Ziming Liu (Journal of Documentation. 2005 vol. 61 issue 6, ProQuest)

Rethinking Online Reading Assessment. Julie Coiro ( Educational Leadership March 2009, EBSCO Professional Collection)

Usability Evaluation of e-books. doi:10.1016/j.displa.2008.12.002

Yen Yu Kang (Displays April 2009 vol. 30 issue 2 Science Direct)

"Don't Waste Time Mourning--Organize"

The October session of Chat Chow & Web 2.0 focused on Web 2.0 technologies for organizing information flows. Carol Daul-Elhindi demonstrated an easy way to set up RSS feeds from library databases directly into SMU e-mail accounts. Chad Kjorlien showed the group how he uses Google Reader to organize the numerous news feeds he subscribes to into a manageable whole. Delving further into Google, Sarah Bearbower took us to her iGoogle page, demonstrating how to set up a portal using modules that can be linked to the RSS feeds, the blogs and wikis, and anything else that an individual might want to organize on a portal page. Finally Ruth Torstenson Lemasters described how to use Yahoo Pipes to consolidate and filter streams of information using a graphical interface.

Dr. William Crozier was the recipient of the C. C. W. 2.0 door prize after correctly identifying the quote from this session's title,"don't waste time mourning, organize," as a line in a speech given by early union organizer, Joe Hill, as he was about to be executed.

Missed the session? No problem. View it here on Tegrity.

"So Various, So Beautiful, So New"

At our welcome back session faculty and staff got a look at what's new on campus this fall. Chad Kjorlien had the latest from Blackboard, including the the addition of the "Learning Objects" module, which gives users access to a search mechanism, wikis & blogs, an e-portfolio, and Facebook--all within Blackboard. Jason Spartz provided coverage of the new features from Tegrity such as enhanced recording capability, student recording, Tegrity Sandbox, Facebook integration, and sending questions to a professor. We heard from Sarah Bearbower on user storage space and the U-drive migration (the U-drive is the new G-drive). Ruth Torstenson LeMasters highlighted some of the new databases from the library website, and Carol Daul Elhindi urged everyone to become a fan of the library, which now has a presence on Facebook. To get the full story, see this Tegrity Session.

(No winner emerged for the door prize at this session, so there will be an opportunity to win a double prize at our next session. Those of you who were in attendance know what this means. The rest of you might want to watch the Tegrity Session)

New Sessions Fall 2009

Chat, Chow, & Web 2.0 begins a new semester and a new blog. We will meet as usual once a month on a Wednesday from 12:30-1:30 with a luncheon accompaniment. We will be posting information about each of the presentations here and watching for your comments.

"So Various, So Beautiful, So New"
A welcome back session highlighting new technologies for the new semester--"where's my G-drive?!!," "what's Camio?" Tegrity meets Facebook.

Wednesday Sept. 16th | 12:30-1:30

Menu: Caesar Salad, Butternut Squash Ravioli and Penne Pasta with Alfredo and Marinara Sauce, Italian Sausage and Meatballs, Garlic Bread and Cookies

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"Don't Waste Time Mourning--Organize"
We'll be looking at Web 2.0 technologies for information management--RSS feeds, Yahoo Pipes, and more.

Wednesday October 21st | 12:30-1:30

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"What's the Use of A Book Without Pictures or Conversations?"
In this session the topic will be e-readers--the latest on Kindle, "what's a Playaway?" "do we want e-text books?"

Wednesday November 18th | 12:30-1:30

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"Oh the Mind, Mind Has Mountains"
Joe Dulak and Tricia Klosky will be on board with concept and mind mapping tools.

Wednesday December 2nd | 12:30-1:30

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Watch more more details coming soon (the all important luncheon menu for example).